Hvítasunnaviku

Góðan daginn gott fólk! Í dag Ég ætla að skriva meirra Íslensku af því að þetta er hvítasunnaviku eða "Pentacostal week,, fyrir truboð minn. Við erum að fasta frá ensku! Ég er mjög spenntur að gera þessi! Í gær við byrjaðum þessi, og ég spyrjaði félagar minn að biðja saman fyrir þessa viku, og sagði ég 'hvítlaukurviku' sem er ''garlic week,,. Við getum að tala ensku fyrir persónuleg samskipti, en langar mig að æfa meirra. Hi guys! Hopefully google translate doesn't buthcher that paragraph for you! The last week of every transfer, our mission does an english fast which started yesterday evening. It's interesting because the mission leaders speak swedish, the other missionaries speak danish, and we speak icelandic across the ocean lol. But the kick off meeting was in english which everyone speaks. This week was pretty good. We had exchanges, so I got to be in selfoss for 24 hours, which was really fun! Selfoss is super nice, and the zone leaders are awesome. We found out who the sisters are gonna be. One's supposed to know spanish, which will really help. The senior couples and a bunch of the branch members went to Denmark for the week to go to the temple, so we got to use their car which was super nice. I gave a talk yesterday in Icelandic! I'm not entirely sure how it went, but people told me it was good. And nobody asked to get their records removed from the church so it must've not been horrible. My toe got an infection so I went to the doctor and I'm gonna pick up a prescription today. It's not really bad, but the lead senior couple here thought it was better to get it checked out soon so that it didn't get horribly worse. We're making a video to post on facebook, because we just got a super nice camera! I wrote the script for it, so hopefully it's not too corny. Some other elders translated it into Icelandic, and we're gonna post one in both languages. Elder Brown's the super awesome missionary in charge of Iceland's tech and social media work. He's been working super hard on this video, which is pretty great. I gave my talk about the restoration, specifically of the restoration of the priesthood and how much of a blessing it truly is. I wanna share that same message with you guys. The priesthood is restored! The power and authority given to mankind to strengthen and uplift each other. To give each other help in our journies back to heavenly Father. It was restored through angels acting in authority from God, to Joseph Smith. And it's been shared to worthy men in the shape of priesthood ordinations, and to women in the setting apart of callings and making of holy covenants to help all people come closer to Christ. Through this power, was Joseph smith able to lead the church through all the hate and persecution it got. Getting chased and prompted to move from New York, to Ohio, to Missouri, to Illinois, where he was taken and martyred. A normal man couldn't have done this, unless he was given strength and guidance from God. There's been so much opposition to the church from that time, all the way to now. Nothing, unless it was called of God, could stand strong and actually grow and progress through so much opposition. Elder Dallin H. Oaks said: "Vested in the power of the priesthood, which is the power of Almighty God, is the power to perform miracles if the Lord wills it so, but in order for us to use that priesthood, we must be worthy to exercise it." When we maximize the power of the priesthood, in whatever capacity we've been given, we will see miracles. This is the power that enables us to seal families for time and all eternity. The power that helps a nursery teacher who's been set apart control the full force of countless toddlers and miraculously not crash and burn. This isn't in my talk but I feel impressed to share a quote from President monson, He said roughly: "Don't ask for tasks equal to your ability, ask for abilities equal to your task. Then, as you work diligently, you will become the miracle" God has not abandoned us. God will not abandon us as long as we don't abandon Him. And even then He won't abandon us. He is always there. When we don't see Him, it's because we're the ones who left, not Him. The power of God is on the earth today. I invite you all to use it to its full extent. If needed, don't hesitate to ask for a blessing. Use this great gift that God has granted His children to have once more. The gift that heals the sick, allows the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and so many more things. When we work with a perfect trust in the Lord, willing to accept His will no matter what, we will see miracles. I'm still putting photos on the Google Photo album (there's an app on the app/play store for it) and I put a link to join in last weeks email. Öldungur Rasmussen

Öldungur "Kapishki"

Sæl! This week was pretty awesome! We had Elder Kapishki (IDK how to spell his name) come. He's the mission area president for Europe! It was awesome. He participated in zone conference with us, the Iceland zone. And we learned so much. It was my first zone conference and what a way to start off with a bang. Yesterday, the members and missionaries of Iceland met together to rededicate themselves to the work. We went to this place called Perlan, where Iceland was dedicated and opened for missionary work in the 1970s, and Elder Kapishki lead us in a prayer. We want to rededicate ourselves to the work because this is the most important work on the planet, for all people. The day before that, we had the first session of conference, IDK what its name is, but it's the equivalent of stake conference for branches, and elder Kapishki spoke. He talked about having faith to move moutains. He said all we need is faith, a shovel, and a pickaxe. That really resinated with me. We were reminded that miracles come after the action. We need to start digging most of the time before God will help us move the mountain. Like how Moses had to get his feet wet in the red see before it would part, or how the priests carrying the Arch of the Covenant had to enter the river before the water stopped flowing. We have to start digging before the mountain will move. And we need to have faith. We need to keep digging, even if it feels like we have had no divine help in moving the mountain. We need to keep digging and trust that even if you don't get through the mountain, that the lord will have you where he needs you to be. Sometimes the lord will only give us the strength for one scoup of the shovel at a time. Sometimes it might seem like he doesn't help at all, but even His "not" helping is helping. We'll grow stronger and braver and prove our trust in the lord the longer we keep digging. We also had another baptism this weekend! Ólafur was baptized on saturday right after that conference meeting. It was pretty amazing! He's so jolly, and that's one of the best words to describe him. He's so fun. Yesterday, he was confirmed a member of the church. President Mattsson (my mission president) also came for the conference. He's so awesome! He kinda dropped a bomb though, in two weeks, on the transfer date he's planning on sending sisters to Iceland for a few months. Apparently we haven't had sisters in Iceland for over a year, probably since before covid, because everyone seemed really surprised. One of them has a little bit of spanish in their background, so he's hoping that they'll be able to connect with the hispanic families better than we've been able to. Those families are awesome! Even though we don't have spanish down, we communicate way better than I ever expected us to be able to. They're a vital part of the branch here in Reykjavik. Next Sunday I get to give a talk about the restoration! (In icelandic) so that's gonna be super awesome! I'm gonna need an extra dose of gift of Tongues, but it will be so great, I'm super excited. In the saturday meeting, someone shared a quote by President Monson, I don't have it word for word, but here's the general message: Don't ask for tasks the size of your ability, ask for ability the size of your task. Then, as you work hard, you yourself will become the miracle. I really love this quote! Last p-day we got permission to go on a day trip to see some cool stops in Iceland, I'll have a few photos in this email. All the missionaries came to Reykjavik for this conference weekend, and we got to do a super awesome thing called Blitz Splits. Basically, everyone got together and went to this area that's kinda hard to get to because we don't have cars and the bus system doesn't reach that far. Then, we split up into new companionships and knocked out a whole bunch of streets. My companion for the event, elder Peterson, and myself only knocked one door the whole time. We were answered by this man, who's super sweet (nearly all Icelanders are, even if they're not interested in our message) and he invited us in! I've only been here 4 weeks, but when we left elder Peterson told me that rarely happens. We went in and we talked with this man for nearly an hour, about an experience he had where he knew that mankind was "asleep" and that we had to wake up. The way he described it was essentially how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints talks about eternal progression, divine potential, and coming closer to Christ, just with different vocabulary. He seemed so excited to talk to us, because most of the Churches in Iceland won't talk about experiences like that, he said the priests would smile at him awkwardly then just change the whole subject. I'm so hopeful for him! Ugh, it's been awesome to grow to care for people individually! I really want to help all the people here in Iceland. I might send another Email with just pictures, but yeahhhhhhhhhhh. Icelandic's really coming along! I've been able to have more in depth conversations and have a better understanding of what people are saying too. I do have a super small vocab bank still, but it's growing! Still haven't been awake for the few hours of darkness we get because that's against mission rules, but Iceland's amazing. I'm so grateful to have an opportunity to serve in this amazing country! Ö. Rasmussen